German-American Friendship Garden
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
The German-American Friendship Garden was established in 1988 to commemorate the 300 years of German immigration to America and the friendship between the United States and Germany. It is located between the White House and the Washington Monument and consists of several planting beds with native plants of both countries and two water fountains. There is also an interpretive panel describing the park.
Images
Established in 1988, the German-American Friendship Garden commemorates the 300 years of German immigration to America and friendship between Germany and the United States.
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
President Ronald Reagan established a commission in 1983 to explore how the United States could commemorate the 300th anniversary of the first Germans to arrive in America. The commission chose to build a garden on the mall and selected German-American landscape artist, Wolfgang Oehme (1930-2011), to design it. American and West German businesses donated to the project (at the time, Germany was divided between East and West Germany) and it was dedicated on November 15, 1988 with Reagan and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl in attendance. Improvements were made in 2012 and beginning in 2013 the garden began to be restored. The work was completed in 2022 and officially unveiled in April that year.
Sources
"German-American Friendship Garden." Mall History. Accessed November 8, 2022. https://mallhistory.org/items/show/222.
"German-American Friendship Garden." Trust for the National Mall. Accessed November 8, 2022. https://nationalmall.org/content/german-american-friendship-garden.
Trust for the National Mall